Celebrating Andrea
Andrea and her parents Mark and Nadia.
Our beautiful daughter Andrea turned 34 in October 2022. I can’t believe we’ve come this far. It hasn’t been an easy journey especially the first couple of years. Andrea was diagnosed at birth, and from then on it was a roller coaster of doctor’s appointments and therapists. It was also a very emotional time for our family.
But here she is…. bigger and brighter and so independent. Andrea lost her sight in 2012 and we had to adapt our signing to hand over hand signing. We basically use the Auslan signs but she holds her hand over ours! There’s obviously a lot more touching involved. Andrea is also completely deaf. She loves going to program, swimming, running, dancing and going to the gym. Andrea resides in a group home (5 mins from us) with 2 other ladies. Andrea has learnt so much from those around her, but incredibly, we have learnt so much from her. She is an incredible young lady and she makes us so proud.
Nadia and Mark McKenna are two of our founding members. Back in 1994, a group of parents at Royal Institute of Deaf and Blind Children (RIDBC) NSW (now NextSense), and Rob Last (AM), came together to form a parent support group, which has since evolved into CHARGE Syndrome Australasia.